Not Enough Power - Jeep Grand Cherokee

We use to tow a Jayco 21 foot trailer with no problems. The trailer had a weight of 4500 lbs and our 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the tow option and 5.7L engine did well. Then for want of more room, we bought a 21 foot North Trail with a slide out, front bedroom. With 10 gallons of water, food propane etc. our weight was up to about 7000 lbs and 580 lbs tongue weight or 90+% of our Jeeps towing capacity. It handled the trailer well until we hit a 10 mile 6% grade and we were down to 20 MPH and half way to the top of the I-5 Grape Vine near Los Angeles, we had to stop at a pull over to let the engine oil and coolant cool down. As much as I hated to trade our Grand Cherokee, I wasn't going to ruin the engine by overloading it. Remember that the dealer is trying to sell the trailer even if you have a horse to pull it with, so do some extra checking and research concerning the actual towing capacity of your vehicle. Don't just take the dealers comment of "that honey of a trailer's weight will not be a problem for your vehicle". We ended up buying a 2014 dodge 4X4 Diesel 3500 and that little trailer will not be a problem for the pickup. We only got that vehicle because it was the same price at the local dealer as a 2500 was at another dealership. Now we can go up if we want. By the way, I saw a chart on the internet, that I cannot find again, that showed our 7000 lb trailer on a 6% grade was up to over 8000 lbs pull weight and far beyond the capacity of our Jeep. Do the research to save you money and aggravation in future.

Good choice going with the 3500 vs 2500. It's a no-brainer.

Great story about lessons learned. Hopefully others in similar situation will heed advice. We had similar. Used a 2005 Toyota Trail Runner to pull 2008 NorthTrail 21fbs, one trip. Was so white knuckle when trucks passed, even though it had the tow rating to pull it. Traded for 2008 Tundra, which was a dream to tow with. Made all the difference in the world. Now use a 3500 to pull 13-14K 5ver... again, no sweat for the truck, so towing is not stressful!


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I hate to think of the price of that truck, but now you have the "horse" to pull anything Heartland makes, and maybe can move up someday from 10 gallons of water (did you mean 100?). I added a EGT guage to mine (maybe the newer ones have this) which more closely monitors your engine temperatures, and is a good indicator of how hard your powertrain is pulling, and how well you are doing on fuel economy.

With my 8 ton Bighorn, I can still get over the Grapevine southbound at about 35 mph slowest, with me limiting the EGT's to a redline of 1200 degrees, and having just a 6 cylinder Cummins. The worst grade I have done recently was on California Highway 154 North from Santa Barbara (Goleta) over the top of the hills to the Thousand Trails Resort there. 154 is only a 2 lane road with a few passing sections, and I got the rig down to about 30 mph before the summit. The good news is that the engine cooling system is so robust, that I see minimal coolant heating while the EGT's are running near 1200 degrees.

You treat that truck nice, and it will last longer than you do. Congrats!!!